


Courage

by jessiedoll



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2019-10-28 00:15:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17776919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessiedoll/pseuds/jessiedoll
Summary: To Catty her father is a legendary hero, at least the version of him in her head. When war breaks out in her own backyard she defies her parents wishes and joins the rebellion, forcing Duo and Hilde back into combat to try and get her back.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies in advance. I've never used this site before so I'm just getting the hang of posting here. I also haven't written any GW fanfic for a good 18 years so this is my first plunge back into it, even though this particular story has been something bubbling about in my head in some form for those 18 years as well. I have a rough idea of where I'm going with this so hopefully I can edit and add tags as I see fit (because it might get dark at some point). But anyhow...I ain't no writer so if you see the odd mistake or two? Don't be surprised. I can go over stuff with a fine tooth comb and STILL miss things.

Hilde had been nearly silent and lost looking for DAYS, ever since her solo trip into town to finalize some paperwork that apparently had to do with the estate. Duo had no reason to doubt her since this whole ordeal around her dead uncle meant mountains of paperwork and meeting with lawyers but he had a sense that something was different on the drive to the house that evening. The way her eyes barely looked like they were on the road and her mittened hands just sitting lightly on the wheel. She seemed like she was just outside herself leaving her body there as an empty shell. There was no way this was just about paperwork.

The dealings around the estate began months prior. The two of them had been doing all right adjusting to semi-normal lives in their chosen colony when the call came: Finn ‘Spike’ Schbeiker was dead.

Duo remembered this moment fairly vividly because Hilde dropped the phone and started crying. He had to scrambled and pick up the phone to apologize, telling the person on the other end to give her a moment. Once Hilde had grabbed a tissue and somewhat composed herself she got herself back on the phone and found out what had happened.

Uncle Spike had been a bit of a wild one and his shenanigans had finally caught up with him. His self made hang glider had failed and he rammed into the side of a cliff; gruesome but one hell of a way to go. But now that meant that someone had to deal with his estate and according to the lawyer Hilde’s name was listed as the executor of said estate.

According to Hilde their family had never been that close and Spike didn’t have any kids or spouse so that’s probably why she was the one listed. Not even her own mother who had fucked off to god knows where a number of years ago was even mentioned once in the paperwork, just Hilde. Everything was left for her to deal with. But what did that mean?

Uncle Spike was a hardcore earth boy so that meant making a trip back to the blue marble to see just what his corpse had left behind for her to wade through with and like a puppy Duo dutifully followed. They came to discover that not only had Uncle Spike been running a rather successful garage and scrap yard (oil practically ran through the veins of the Schbeiker family) but also owned a farm house that sat on a large property as well.

And that’s where Hilde fell in love with it.

After the death of her father Hilde’s mother had brought the little 10 year old to earth to stay with her uncle, it was only supposed to be for a few weeks while her mother went to sort things out but it didn’t work out that way. Weeks quickly became months and before Hilde knew it she was 13 and the last correspondence with her mother told her next to nothing of her whereabouts. Hilde had enjoyed staying with her uncle who was more like a goofy big brother to her but she missed space so with his blessing she returned to pick up where she left off any maybe find her mother.

That never happened though. Her life spun into chaos, she volunteered with the military, met some doofus in a mobile suit, almost got killed a few times and somehow made it out alive.

Being back on earth in the presence of that old farm house and its memories just made her feel stable somehow. She told Duo she was going to stay, that he didn’t have to if he didn’t want to. Initially he seemed aloof and told her he’d stick around long enough for her to get her footing as she figured out the business and whatnot, maybe hang around for fun for a while. That he didn’t know what he was going to do. What reason did he have to stick around? It’s not like they were married or anything.

But here he was months later sitting in the passenger seat of her dead uncle’s car as she drove home from the scrap yard after a regular day of work. Weeks of regular 9-5 shifts that ended in them coming home to either raid the fridge and throw whatever together or order take out often followed by menial tasks like laundry or other cleaning, the odd time an intimate tumble on the couch. Just a completely mundane existence. A far cry from space battles and covert missions.

This was what she wanted. So just what was bothering her?

Might have been the extra cold weather over the last few days. December had rolled in with a vengeance forcing them to put heavy coats over their comfy sweaters and pull their hoods up around their ears. Being colony born and raised neither of them were really used to conditions where their nose hairs froze instantly and their toes turned to ice if they weren’t wearing enough layers of socks. She had been complaining about not being able to get warm so maybe that’s what had dampened her mood.   

Hilde finally pulled into the icy driveway, parked and cut the engine. She just sat there quietly, keys in her hand. Duo didn’t know if he should break the silence with a joke or just get out of the car and pretend like nothing was wrong. He went for the joke.

“So…did you hear the one about the-”

“Duo, I’m pregnant.”

He just sat there in stunned silence, puffs of his own breath hanging in the frigid air like smoke as she finally made eye contact with him looking really upset. Was he supposed to say something? What if she cried?

“...that’s great?” Duo forced a smile wondering if that was appropriate.

Hilde huffed and leaned her head on the wheel. “No, I’m serious. I lied about the paperwork a few days ago, it was actually for a doctors appointment. I did the at home test and just wanted to be sure.”

“I see…so what now?”

There was another moment of uncomfortable silence. All they could hear was the wind swirling already fallen snow and rushing through the empty tree branches. Hilde sat back up straight and wiped some tears from her eyes. She breathed deeply a few times but the tears kept trickling down her cold, rosy cheeks.

“I’ve decided to keep it.” Her voice was getting shaky. “..and I don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to so if this is our goodbye then-”

“WAIT-wait wait wait. Not to be rude, but I have to stop you right there.” Duo cut her off in protest.

Hilde’s eyes flashed angrily at him. “Oh, don’t you dare! I’ve wanted to be a mom since I was-”

Duo reach out and grabbed her shoulder, her mind was jumping to conclusions before he could get a word out.

“Hilde! Just give me a moment to speak!”

Crossing her arms the best she could in her puffy winter jacket she glared skeptically at him. Duo let out a relieved sigh.

“Geeze, Hilde. Look. I’m all for whatever you want to do. You wanna keep it? Awesome. You want an abortion? Great, I’ll drive you there and bring you home and tell you it’s okay. What I don’t want is you thinking that I’m just going to abandon you.”

“But you said-”

“Fuck what I said!” Duo sunk down into the seat and propped his bony knees on the dashboard. “I’m kinda liking this…normalcy? Is that a word? Look, I’ve never had a normal life. I spent the first chunk of my existence stealing so I wouldn’t starve, spent the other part as a fucking child soldier and have seen more death than a mortician. So this whole having a house and a regular job thing? It has an appeal to me. I’ve never told anyone this but I used to have this sort of alternate reality in my head where I had a mom and a dad and we had a house and a dog and all the nice, normal things that I guess non-orphans take for granted? It sounds so stupid when I say it out loud.”

“...it’s not. Sounds sad, actually.”

“My point is, if you want to keep it I’m not going to go anywhere. Actually, the way things were going I was thinking about sticking around anyways…how far along are you?” Duo wouldn’t have been able to tell if Hilde was showing with all the layers she was wearing but his eyes skipped down to her middle anyways.

With a sniffle Hilde wiped the remains of her tears away with the back of a mitten. “6 weeks.”

“So...that leaves us with a little over 7 months to prepare?”

“Sure you’re gonna be here that long?”

Duo put a hand on his chest and mocked looking offended. He couldn’t blame her since he DID have a bad habit of just picking up and leaving quite often. However he’d so far proved to be more like a yo-yo with Hilde at the other end of the string.

The two of them finally got out of the frosty car and into the nipping evening air. Snow and ice crunched under their boots as they trekked to the porch and tried not to slip on the ice coated steps. Despite wearing gloves Duo’s fingers were frozen enough that handling a simple house key was a challenge and in his frustration he dropped it.

“...I was a gundam pilot. You would think I could handle a house key.”

Hilde fished the key out of the snow with a laugh and gave it a try herself. “And you think you’re ready to handle a baby?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe, BABY. Oh crap, I think it’s frozen.”

“Isn’t there some de-icer in the car?”

“...there is at the shop.”

“Back to the car it is!”

This time when they were back in the car Hilde cranked the heat full blast and held her hands to the vent. The shop was only about 2 kilometers away so she hadn’t bothered to turn it on before, thinking that by now she’d be in her flannel pjs stuffing her face with leftover chinese food and huddling under a quilt. But no, like an idiot she was locked out of her own home by a frozen lock and didn’t have enough common sense to keep the de-icer in the car where it belonged.

As the heat seeped into her bones and feeling slowly returned to her fingertips Duo tapped her on the shoulder with his own frozen digits. She was expecting him to start whining about her hogging the heat but instead he just gestured between the two of them, asking her to come closer .

Hilde leaned in, letting her hands drop for a moment. Of course she was expecting a kiss, but just as the icy tip of his nose grazed her cheek he pulled away and crammed his hands up to the heating vent. He grinned wildly at her and she punched his shoulder as hard as she could but he just laughed.

“You pest!” Barked Hilde.

“You were taking all the heat!”

“Who has the baby growing inside them?”

“You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry.” Duo reached over, his fingers still cold and slid them into her jacket so they were touching her neck and made her jump in her seat.

“Ugh! I can’t believe I’m doomed to 18 years of this now.” Hilde tugged her hood over her face and shook him off. She felt him rest his head against her shoulder.

“I can’t promise I’ll be perfect but I’ll do my damn best.”

“I don’t need you to be perfect. Just be there.” Popping her hood off Hilde put the keys back in the ignition, started up and pulled out of the driveway. The route to the shop might have been a short one but there way clearly another long road ahead of them. Surely in that time she’d get her revenge on the cold fingers.


	2. This House Is Not Quiet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...this one is kinda long. That's unfortunately the result of this originally being structured differently. Anyhoo...there is talk of bigotry and racism in this. I guess it seems a bit clunky but I am drawing from personal experiences (I'm mixed race but white presenting and queer but not out publicly so unfortunately the local bigots feel VERY comfortable talking to me at my job for some reason). But yeah, I wrote the last bit during a headache so I might have to go back and edit some crap but for the most part this should establish some of the main characters. It should also be noted that ASL will be used throughout the story by the characters, for the most part I'll just be describing what they're saying when it's used but there will eventually be moments where I'll be using the proper grammatical structure for ASL which is not at all the same as english so if you're unfamiliar with it it's gonna look odd but should still be understandable.

Every morning like clockwork Duo would wake up at 2 am, heart racing and head swimming with demons. Didn’t matter that there was another warm body in bed next to him, he’d have to get up and leave or risk waking her up either with tossing and turning or crying. Not that Hilde would mind but he didn’t feel that it was fair to her to have to wake up and comfort him. So instead he’d gotten into the habit of either trying to drown out the mess in his head with hours of terrible infomercials on the downstairs tv until his eyes were burning or writing down whatever came to mind in a cheap notebook until his hand started cramping. The old trunk they used as their coffee table was crammed full of filled notebooks.

This morning was no different than the thousands that came before. 2 am and unable to sleep, heart going faster than a rocket to the moon. Time to stumble downstairs in the dark and try to deal with it. This time it was the biggest mug of chamomile tea he could make and some crappy advertisements for a psychic hotline. If it didn’t cost 5 bucks a minute after the first 5 minutes he would have had a blast calling in just to fuck with them. After the third cup of tea his bladder was about ready to burst but his heart had slowed down and instead of horrific visions all he had on his mind was the snarky things he’d say to the hotline. After a quick pit stop in the downstairs washroom he slithered back upstairs, caught by the large mirror in the hallway just outside their bedroom.

Duo didn’t think he was completely unfortunate for being in his mid 30’s. He still managed to have a pretty boyish face (even with the beginnings of wrinkles forming) and had a full head of hair that he still wore in a massive braid, though these days it was more likely to be wound up on the back of his head and held in place with lots of bobby pins to prevent his 8 year old from yanking on it to get his attention. Ever since taking on the role of the stay at home parent though he’d put on quite a bit of weight to the point where he almost solely lived in sweats and loose t shirts, but every time he contemplated trying to lose weight Hilde would get mad at him and tell him he wouldn’t be comfortable to nap on anymore if he did that. He certainly didn’t want to lose that privilege so he was trying his best to be okay with being rounder and squishier than he used to be.

Flipping off the chubby man in the mirror (that guy had terrible body image) Duo creaked the door to the bedroom opened quietly, tiptoed over to the bed and snuggled up to Hilde hoping her warmth would help him finally get some sleep. For a while it seemed to, he at least got to the place where he wasn’t quite asleep yet not quite awake but then 6 am rolled around and the house started to stir.

First it was Hilde who knew he’d been awake, she always knew. She planted a kiss on his cheek before going to get ready for the day and took the comfort of her body with her. Not too long after that the murmur of two teenage girls talking could be heard through the walls, not enough to make out what they were saying but enough that it was too loud to drift off again. Not wanting to be the cranky parent Duo jammed his head under a pillow and tried to find sleep again. Then there were footsteps up in the attic, some scuffing around and some laughter. Footsteps on the attic stairs again, a door slams. Someone is talking about blueberry pancakes and…is that a sewing machine?

At some point Duo must have actually fallen asleep because the next thing he knew it was his 8 am wake up call and there was a small hand tapping his shoulder. Cracking open an eye and lifting his head off the drool soaked pillow a pair of blue (almost purple) eyes stared back at him. The little girl had a chubby little face with rosy cheeks and a light dusting of freckles, hair as dark as night framed her face in gentle waves and she still wore her little pink frilly pjs. With 2 fingers he sort of brushed his chin a couple of times, smiled at her and in a croaky voice said “Hey cutie.”

The little girl frowned and shook her head, tapping both her head and belly with the middle fingers on her open hands.

“You sick?” Duo reached out to feel her forehead with his arm but before the skin even made contact the little girl suddenly looked very green and wolfed up dinner from the night before. “Ah, that answers my question.”

Narrowly avoiding the puke pile on the ground Duo picked up the upset looking little girl and gave her a big squeeze. “You’re okay Styx…” Obviously he knew she couldn’t hear him but it was the hug and the hand rubbing her back that was more important in that moment.

After getting her face and the bedroom floor clean Duo grabbed her raggedy stuffed bunny from her bedroom and carried Styx downstairs where he planted her on the couch under a blanket, made sure the subtitles were on and switched over to the reruns of Judge Trudy that she always seemed fascinated by. Leaving a bucket just in case there were any more surprises her ruffled her hair, flashed the “I love you!” sign and skittered off to the kitchen. She was asleep before he even made it down the hallway.

Duo worried all the time if they’d made the right decision with Styx. When they found out she’d been born deaf of course there was the encouragement to ‘fix’ her, doing things like getting her a cochlear implant and speech therapy. But something about the idea of their kid being considered broken really bothered Duo and Hilde so instead of attempting to change her they changed themselves and immediately started to learn to sign, deciding anything else that came along would be her decision. So far she seemed to be a happy, intelligent kid. She went to a mainstream school with an interpreter, didn’t talk (aside from trying to say their names sometimes) but that didn’t stop her from making any friends and she never seemed upset at being considered different. Hopefully if there was one thing he could accomplish in his useless life it would be making sure she lived hers to its fullest.

“Good Morning!” A sing-song voice hit him like a transport truck as he entered the kitchen. The tall teenage girl it erupted from stood at the stove making the blueberry pancakes he was glad he hadn’t made up in his half asleep state. She had her wavy, chestnut brown hair pulled up in a high ponytail and was clearly already dressed for the day in a pale blue slip dress, white leggings and a matching cardigan. Touches of gold from her earrings and necklace flashed under the overhead light. She always looked so well put together Duo was certain that she was some super human that never actually slept…or he would believe that if she didn’t snore like a chainsaw.

“God dammit, Miu! How many times do I have to tell you that you don’t have to make breakfast for everyone?” Not that he was opposed to it, but he didn’t like the fact that she made the effort to do it EVERY single morning. She was a guest, not an employee.

Miu just shrugged and slid another pancake on the growing stack next to her. “Can’t do that, Mr. Maxwell. I gotta make my keep too!”

Miu was actually the the 17 year old spawn of Relena Darlain and Heero Yuy. To be honest no one was ever expecting them to have a kid, yet here she was standing in their kitchen yipping at him in the most polite way possible (obviously a skill she picked up from her mother). Why she was there was sort of a sad story, but it had a happier outcome.

Thankfully it was nothing to do with her parents, they were the most supportive people a kid could have. Rather, it was all to do with the other people in her life on the colonies that has made things difficult for her. Despite being part of an advanced society colony people were still capable of being closed minded jackasses, so when Miu had come out to her parents at age 10 and began her transition shortly after there were plenty of folks who felt they were entitled to their opinion about a kid who was figuring themselves out. With Relena being in the public eye so much that made things a living nightmare for the poor kid, so at some point they yanked her out of school for her own safety and had her privately tutored.

Eventually though Heero got this wild idea that Miu should be interacting with kids her own age again but he didn’t trust the colony brats she’d grown up with to treat her as a human being. That was where Duo and Hilde came into the picture. They’d known Miu since she was a baby and had never treated her any differently even after her coming out. It took a bit to get Relena on board with the plan but eventually they convinced her and when Miu turned 14 she was shipped off to earth to live with Duo and Hilde in their little rural community so she could attend high school like the normal kid she was.

Of course it helped that she went by a fake last name and had long hair now so no one would be the wiser as to who her parentage was or what her identity was. She was passed off as Duo’s niece to anyone who asked and seeing as he seldom talked about his past with the other people in town that answer seemed to sit with them okay. Even though Duo and Hilde acted as her surrogate earth parents Heero and Relena were still very protective and checked up on her regularly. Miu and Relena talked nearly every night before bed and though Heero would come and go as he pleased he was always doing little things like bringing her small gifts just because or taking her out to teach her some sort of survival skill. Despite their distance they remained close.

“...you’re a guest. And don’t call me that. Duo is fine, or Dad 2.0 works.”

“Hmmm, I think Dad version 1 might disagree.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re right. I’d end up with a pair of spandex shorts crammed up my ass if that ever became a thing.” Duo mused. Miu didn’t understand his reference and just stared at him for a moment in silence before going back to the frying pan.

That was when a pair of small, delicate hands suddenly covered his eyes and there was a mischievous snicker. “Heh. Hey, hey dad. __Guess what I did?__ ”

Duo sighed heavily. “What the shit did you do now Catty?”

“You gotta promise not to get mad first.”

“...what the FUCK did you do then?”

“...I might have found that weird old priest get up you used to wear and took the sewing machine to it?”

Duo snapped his head back, expecting to see it hacked up like the rest of her clothes. Nope, she’d just modified it to fit her smaller stature. For a 17 year old girl Catty was just under 5 feet tall so almost everything she wore was either stolen from their old clothes in the attic and modified to fit her or from the juniors section at the department store. On this particular piece of handy work she’d just taken in the top a bit and shortened the pants replacing the buttons with zippers at the ankles instead. There was something missing though.

“...no, Catty. This isn’t right.”

Catty ran a frustrated hand through her shoulder length dirty blonde hair which was shaved on both sides and her eyes flicked angrily up at him. “What do you mean? I leveled up my sewing skills with these zippers!”

Grabbing a stray elastic out of the junk drawer he made her sit in one of the chairs around the small kitchen table and started braiding her mohawk. “Listen here, kiddo. If you’re gonna be stealing my looks then you gotta do it right!”

“But dad! My hair looks like freakin’ artisan bread whenever you braid it!”

Duo stopped, craned his neck and stared hard at her for a moment. “Catty, we don’t say freakin’ in this damn house. It is fuck or nothing, young lady! We curse like real men!”

“UGH, okay. My hair looks like FUCKING bread.”

“BREAD head.”

“I hate you.” Catty grumbled and slid down in the chair trying to make it harder for Duo to braid it but he was nearly done anyways. He’d become fast at the art of the braid doing his own hair for years so Catty’s was nothing.

Catty (full name Catriona Maxine Schbeiker) was an interesting little hybrid of her parents. From Hilde she mostly inherited her round face, upturned nose and pale blue eyes along with her massive stubborn streak and Duo’s DNA came through in the form of a shit eating grin, his body language and sunny disposition. What they couldn’t explain was her hair colour, unusually thick eyebrows and short stature so they just assumed they were something from Duo’s unknown family origins.

Despite definitely looking more like Hilde in the face for years people were telling the couple that Catty was like a mini Duo. To be fair prior to her major hair cut at 15 Catty did also sport a long twisting braid like her father since he’d refused to cut her hair. But at some point Catty got sick of people comparing her to Duo so she shaved her hair off, got a nose ring and started stretching her ear lobes. As much as it pained Duo to see her shear her locks off he’d actually been the one to help her with the clippers when she made the decision, because he felt it was important for her to forge her own identity that didn’t rely on her parents. These changes to Catty’s appearance had also prompted the most minor change in Duo…he was now the only dad in town over 30 with a nose hoop.

“Okay, I know you’re done. You’re just playing with it now!” Catty whined impatiently and bounced her leg, she tried to tug her stumpy braid out of his hands.

“One more thing…well, two.”

Catty frowned as Duo disappeared into the porch for a moment and came back with a black ball cap and sunglasses. “Can’t do much to help you in the shoe department, little miss size 2, but here’s the rest!”

Catty took the items in her hands, turning them over and looking at them skeptically. “...these the legit ones?”

“I think so.”

Slipping on the ball cap and popping the sunglasses on Catty leaned back in the chair with her arms crossed and whipped a short leg onto the table. “Yeah, I make this shit look way better than you EVER did.”

“Well, considering I’d never fit into those ever again you’re probably right. But let’s see how far your cuteness gets you when you walk past the catholic school later on.”

“...is that a bet?”

“You contemplate that while I go fetch your mother.”

The large steel workshop with the domed roof was the building on the property that sat closest to the treeline and had been there since before they owned the place. Hilde’s uncle had once used it to build his many contraptions, including the hang glider that ultimately led to his death. Since inheriting the property Hilde had upgraded the welding station, cordoned off a space to work on computer components for her creations and built some permanent scaffolding she could wheel by herself around the space to where ever she needed it. That happened to be what she was strapped to for safety when Duo walked in to call on her.

A giant smear of grease was streaked across her forehead, there was a screwdriver in her mouth and she was muttering something to herself as she peered at a mass of twisted wires and snapped metal on the shoulder of her creation. Standing about 6 meters tall and painted a school bus yellow the monstrosity certainly was no war machine but it still gave Duo the creeps. He’d refused to get anywhere near a functional mobile suit of any kind since saying his final goodbye to Deathscythe years ago, so he hovered at the entrance of the shop whistling to get Hilde’s attention.

After about the 5th attempt Hilde snapped back to reality and removed the tool from her mouth. “Oh no, what now?” She asked unhooking herself from the safety harness and climbing down the steps that made a loud clinking sound under her work boots. Hilde’s daily look consisted mostly of grease stained coveralls she tied at the waist when not zipped up and even more grungy looking sleeveless shirts but to Duo she still looked adorable as ever, even with the addition of her very boyish looking undercut.

When she reached the entrance Duo tapped the grease on her face prompting her to try and wipe it off with the sleeve of the coveralls but that just smeared it even more.

“Well. Styx tossed her cookies so she’s definitely staying home today, Miu just made the most wicked smelling blueberry pancakes and I think I gained a pound just looking at them and our other demon spawn is all up in the house looking ready to give a sermon.”

“So, aside from Styx having a flu that sounds like a pretty typical morning.”

“Yup. Another normal day at the Schbeiker house. How you coming along on Catty’s bot?” Duo glanced over at the looming figure trying sound interested in what she was doing.

Back when Hilde first got into building them he straight up told her he would never see her battle in the ring, not after she nearly got herself killed the last time she was in a mobile suit. Never mind that they were maybe 1/3 the size, had no lethal weapons and all battles took place supervised in an arena with medics standing by. The organization running the events tried to make them more approachable by calling them ‘mini mechs’ but they were still just mobile suits.

So of course when Catty started to show interest in the mini mechs Duo completely lost his cool and for the first time in a long time disappeared for a good 3 days and didn’t tell anyone where he went (not even Heero could find him and no one ever figured out where he went). During those 3 days Hilde thought for sure he’d officially broken up with her and went back to space but eventually he came back, apologized and told them they could do what ever they wanted but he still never wanted to see them fight in those damn suits.

Hilde narrowed her eyes at him, doubtful he was showing genuine interest. “Oh? You care now?”

“Well, a little. I know the arm got ripped off last match because Catty performed quite the vivid reenactment for Styx. I just want to make sure she’s safe and that her real arm isn’t ripped off next time.” Duo popped an arm into his sleeve and mimicked sparks flying with his freehand to imitate Catty’s reenactment.

“Ah, rats. There goes my plans of building her a nice new prosthetic.”

“HILDE.”

Rolling her eyes Hilde brushed past him leaving a partial handprint on the side of his face. “I’m kidding! You really should reconsider and come watch one day, Catty really does take after you in the ring.”

“Yeah, too bad she isn’t allowed a scythe.”

“Well, they are considering allowing some weapons in an additional category next year!”

“...don’t be telling me that!” Duo shouted in alarm and followed Hilde back to the house.

Despite their best efforts to mow down the pancakes Catty and Miu ended up being late and missed their bus, learning that this happened when a classmate send them a selfie from the bus asking if they were skipping classes that day. Since Hilde still had a ton of work to do in the shop once Duo got the handprint off his face and put on a semi-clean t shirt he fished off the floor he made the girls go load themselves into the car. The entire drive to town Catty had her head stuck out the passenger window like a dog while Miu sat in the back checking over her homework like a responsible student.

Once in town the speed limit changed and they had to slow down so Catty pulled herself back in, rubbing her front teeth with her finger.

“And not a single bug!”

“No free protein for you I guess.” Miu remarked without looking up from her notes, a small grin just barely visible across her lips.

As they pulled onto the main street Duo noticed a small gathering on the sidewalk outside the quilting shop. About 3 men in camo jackets with shaved heads were surrounding a small old lady and they didn’t look too friendly. Pulling the car over he told the girls he’d be right back, Catty stuck her head out the window to get a better look and Miu chose to lurk in the background.

Recognizing them as 3 local jerks who sometimes showed up to Hilde’s shop looking for a deal on their repairs Duo made a point of placing himself between them and the little old lady they were clearly trying to intimidate. She wasn’t just a random old lady though, she was the one who’d saved the stuffed bunny Styx never went anywhere without. A couple of years prior the neighbours dog had wandered into their yard and when Styx went to pet the playful animal it thought the bunny was a chew toy and ripped it from her hands and eventually into two pieces.

Her name was Mrs. Li and she was one of the sweetest little old ladies Duo had ever met. She was barely 90 pounds soaking went, had a full head of bobbed white hair and wore brightly coloured flower print dresses nearly all year round. Her english wasn’t the greatest but she tried and Duo hit up Wufei to help him learn some Cantonese and that made the little old lady blush when he tried to thank her for fixing the bunny. He completely butchered it but Mrs. Li was delighted by the attempt.

“Hey fellas! What’s goin’ on here?”

“Beat it, Maxwell.” One of the men growled. He was taller than the other two men and his face was permanently frozen in a scowl.

Duo flashed him a smile. “Aww, you remembered my name! Cute! Now why are you harassing my sweet old grandma here?”

Scowly McScowlface took a heavy step forward, he was a good 6 inches taller than Duo but he’d beat the crap out of men even bigger than that when he was a kid so Duo didn’t even flinch…or at least he didn’t until he got blasted with beef jerky breath. “Just teaching her some english. Why do you care?”

He swore he felt some spit spatter on his face but with that admission Duo cheerfully went “ngóh oi néih!” and made a kissy face at the man who immediately jumped back in horror.

“What? You gay or something?” Scowly’s eyes went wide in horror.

“Oh please” Duo snorted. “You’ve met my very adorable female life partner. And it’s called being bisexual, you uncultured single cell organism. I don’t know why you’re trying to bring back some of the worst of the 20th century but it’s really out of style.”

The small group of men just exchanged perplexed glances at each other, Duo had obviously said something a little too cerebral for them.

“Now before I decide which one of you will make a nice boyfriend in my imagination I suggest you go back to the cave you crawled out of and leave Mrs. Li alone. You know my reputation so you know I won’t be letting you terrorize her.” Duo snarled at them while cracking his fists, he felt tiny little Mrs. Li grabbing the back of his shirt as she hid behind him.

Without a word the men started backing off and headed towards a parked truck just a few meters behind his car with the girls inside. As they walked by Catty stared up over her (borrowed) sunglasses at one of them and made eye contact, she was tempted to spit at them but swallowed back the loogie figuring it would just get them in even more trouble.

Duo waited until the truck was down the street and around the corner before he put a hand on Mrs. Li’s shoulder and started leading her to the car, she still looked absolutely terrified as she peered around and clutched her purse but was also grateful to be getting out of there. Duo had learned a little more Cantonese since his fumbled attempts a couple years before so their conversation as he helped her into the back seat next to Miu mostly went over the girls heads but they caught on that he was going to take her home.

They couldn’t blame him, encounters like that were starting to happen more often around town and it was really disheartening. Catty and Miu had heard from nearly all their friends horror stories about the men in the camo jackets sitting outside their houses watching them or confronting their parents, a few kids had even been followed on their way home from school. There were even reports of the local mosque being vandalized more than once in recent months and the Punjabi take out place on the main street having a brick tossed through the window. In almost all these cases men in camo jackets were spotted nearby but the authorities didn’t seem to take these claims seriously.

Normally their town was proud of its diversity but the last few years there was a definite resurgence in some very…old fashioned ways of thinking. Despite being white (which seemed to protect her from the brunt of the bullshit) even Catty had been dished a small amount of bigotry, having been called a dyke on more than one occasion in the hallways. She had a pretty thick skin though so she didn’t care but that didn’t make her any less scared for her friends who more obviously didn’t fit this weird, default mold that the men in the camo jackets seemed to be obsessed with. She’d gotten into a couple of fights before that summer over some other kids using some very unsavoury terms against her group of friends. Of course Catty had only gotten herself tossed in detention and the other kids got off with a warning even though they’d started the whole thing.

“I should have thrown my bible at them.” Catty mumbled as Duo started the car up.

“Catty! You didn’t? No!” Duo slowly turned and looked at his daughter and in a low whisper said, “You know they don’t read books without large, colourful pictures.”

“Oh, Daddy. And you thought MY joke was in bad taste.”

“You’re right, you’re right.” Checking the street for vehicles driving by Duo pulled out and started back on the route to school, they were definitely going to be late. “They probably do read…pretty sure I saw some old Neo-Nazi propaganda in one of their pockets.”

Of course he was kidding…well, sort of. While he hadn’t seen anything sticking out of their pockets some very alarming flyers and graffiti had been showing up around town in the recent weeks. He was certain it had something to do with the men in the camo jackets since these nasty pieces of what looked like recruitment material had the same logo on them as their jackets. Duo could only hope this mess was just isolated to their town and not something bigger.

The bell for first class was going off just as the girls scrambled out of the car. As they ran up the steps towards the entrance clinging to each other and laughing for just a split second Duo swore he saw his younger self and a young Relena. That was just an illusion brought on by a lack of sleep though because in no reality were Duo and Relena ever that buddy-buddy or carefree in each others presence.

Duo suddenly remembered he wasn’t alone.

“Mrs. Li!” He turned towards her in the back seat and beamed. “How about we get you home to that sweet old man of yours?


	3. Underground

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies, this chapter is VERY much centered around Catty and Miu but the plot does start to develop a bit more. And yes, Catty is a little shit.

By some miracle Catty had made it through the school day without getting herself tossed in detention. There were a few times when she was questioned about her unusual ensemble by the staff but she had a whole speech prepared about how this was technically a historical garment, how she was just trying to honour her father and by that point in her spiel the teacher listening had completely tuned out or left. She was told to take off the hat indoors a few times but otherwise didn’t get lectured or told to save it for Halloween.

Even more surprising was that she actually got away with her whole stunt in the courtyard over lunch when she stood up on one of the picnic tables and started reading a ‘sermon’ she prepared which was just 15 whole minutes of her talking about how pretty she thought girls were. Post sermon the tag #fathercatty started appearing on her social media feed with video taken at multiple angles, most with emojis of rainbows and girls holding hands added over top. Her tag continued to grow the rest of the day as random students would take selfies with her or post stealth video taken of her making a face in the middle of a lesson or just walking down the hall minding her own business.

Catty thought it was an absolute RIOT and she wondered why she hadn’t done this sooner. Well, she knew why. Her dad had completely on purpose made it very hard for her to find some of his old clothes (due to her habit of taking scissors to most of her things) but told her if she could sniff them out then they were hers. She absolutely understood the sentimental value of the get up with the clerical collar but a deal was a deal and once she found it hidden on top of a beam in the attic he wasn’t getting it back. 

After a couple last minute selfies with classmates Catty and Miu managed to just catch the bus home and the whole ride to their stop they scrolled through the #fathercatty tag laughing hysterically at the days antics documented by everyone. Catty made sure to screenshot a few of the really over the top ‘prayer hands’ pictures to show her dad, most notably one of both her and Miu posing in front of some trash cans with the words ‘Visiting the family!’ pasted over it (she figured he’d get a kick out of that one since he constantly made references to himself looking like garbage).

Their stop was about 100 yards down the dirt road from the end of their driveway and just up an incline, as they came up over the hill Catty stopped abruptly and used her arm to hold Miu back. There was a strange vehicle at the house. It looked like the type of van a repair technician might use but was beat up, painted a dull green and had some kind of logo slapped sloppily on it.

Holding a finger to her lips Catty nodded for Miu to follow her into the field next to their house so they could use the overgrown grass for cover. Crawling slowly and quietly the only sound they could hear aside from their own breathing was the wind rustling through the trees and the dried out grass, not even a bird or cow from the field across the road could be heard. It was eerie.

Using one of the bushes next to their driveway to block herself from view Catty pulled herself onto her knees, whipped her phone out and using the camera magnified the image to try and spot anything in the door or windows. Just barely through the screen door she could make out some silhouettes milling about in the kitchen but couldn’t identify who they were.

That’s when there was a muffled yell followed by a gunshot and a scream.

Nearly dropping her phone Catty started to shake, Miu clung to her wide eyed and hissed asking what to do. Catty managed to pull herself together enough to make Miu follow her on all fours to where the edge of the field met the workshop and once they were there she grabbed Miu by the wrist and they bolted into the woods.

Miu had no clue where Catty was taking her but she seemed to travel with purpose. After a good 10 minutes of running a shoddy cabin came into view but they didn’t go inside. Instead Catty rounded the back of the cabin, shoved some rocks over and kicked at what looked like a switch that had been hidden underneath. Some more rocks in a pile nearby moved revealing a stairway leading underground as Catty replaced the rocks she knocked over.

Miu had no idea this place even existed but Catty seemed to know what she was doing. Once they were inside the stairwell Catty input a code on a keypad and they were shut in. There were about 3 more levels of stairs, each with its own door and code. The entire time Catty remained stone faced and didn’t say anything, unusual for her since she almost always had some smile or frown and at least one bad joke to tell.

The final door opened to what looked like a normal living room in an apartment, once they were both inside and the lock beeped Catty crumpled to the ground and started bawling. Not really sure what to do Miu tried to comfort her by gently rubbing her back, she’d figured out pretty quickly that Catty’s mind had gone to the worst possible conclusion. How could she not? There was evidence of strange people at her house on a day when her mom, dad and sister were all home.

Even if the outlook was grim Miu had to know what happened.

Leaving Catty crying on the floor Miu planted herself on the couch and whipped out her phone. Unknown to the other residents of the Schbeiker house Heero had taught his daughter all the login information for the security cameras that had been placed around the house when she was brought to earth. Miu never did anything sinister with this information, she mostly would just go back and watch funny moments like Hilde cramming a whole piece of cake in her mouth all at once or Duo and Styx having an epic tea party in full costume. Today though it would serve the purpose of finding out if they had a funeral in their near future.

The camera she wanted was in the kitchen, hidden in a plant that sat on top of the fancy china hutch (though there was no fancy china inside it, just various action figures). That particular camera gave a view from just before the screen door that led to the porch right to the door frame that led to the hallway so you could see nearly everything. Initially she went back too far to earlier that morning when Duo had apparently been up making tea for himself, skipping ahead Miu saw herself making pancakes. Miu finally stumbled upon some footage of Duo and Hilde restrained in their kitchen chairs while Styx clung to Hilde’s leg. There were about 4 men in there with them with their backs to the camera, all of them wearing crap you could find at the army surplus store. All of them had hand guns.

Miu really wanted to put the sound on to hear what they were saying but the last thing she needed to do was blast that gunshot and get Catty going even worse, so Miu watched the silent conversation and attempted to lipread but she was garbage at it. However Duo’s body language and facial expressions sure told a story. He was clearly snipping and trying to get the one guy going, even as the mystery man drew his gun up Duo was grinning at him. That’s when the gun went off and on screen Hilde screamed but Duo was fine. Well, his arm wasn’t completely okay and the stove behind him had shattered glass but he was alive. Miu skipped ahead a little more just to make sure he didn’t get shot again.

Thankfully he didn’t but the men ended up leading them out of the house and when Miu switched to the porch camera she saw them getting loaded into the back of the van they’d seen in the driveway. Outside she also had a clear view of the men and recognized 3 of them as the ones Duo confronted in town earlier that day and the fourth? Miu wanted to ask just to make sure…

Catty was an UGLY crier. Red face, snot dripping out the nose and everything. When Miu told her that her family was alive she stopped her heaving and sniffled.

“...what? They’re alive?”

“It looks like the bullet only grazed your dad’s arm, probably a warning shot.”

Catty grabbed Miu’s phone and watched the whole thing unfold, getting angrier and angrier as she did. When Miu took her to the outside footage where they could see all their faces crystal clear Catty punched the cement floor as hard as she could and yelled.

“That FUCKING PIG!” Not even caring that her knuckles were red and sore Catty shot up and started pacing around the room. “UGH! Miu…that’s the chief of police! What the hell is he doing capturing my family? I KNEW there was something fishy about that bastard!”

Miu followed Catty and tried to get a look at the injury on her hand as she stormed around the room. “Any idea where he might have taken them?”

Catty paused and sucked some blood off her knuckles. “He DOES have a pretty large chunk of property not too far outside of town. I bet I could-”

“Catty! No, don’t!” Miu gently took Catty’s hands into her own and looked directly at her with pleading eyes. “Let my dad take care of it. When mom doesn’t get a call from me tonight she’ll tell dad right away and-”

Had it not been for her crying already making her cheeks red Miu would have seen Catty blush in reaction to their hands touching. Catching herself getting lost in the green and blue hues of Miu’s eyes Catty broke away clearing her throat. “Alright! I won’t play hero! But I’d sure love to punch that guy!”

“Any ideas what his motivation is?”

“Aside from being a dick? No idea…” Catty’s stomach growled loud enough for both girls to hear. Between forgetting to eat because of her lunchtime sermon and her crying fit the blueberry pancakes she’d scarfed for breakfast had finally fizzled out.

Miu trailed Catty down a dark hall and into a kitchen that, though basic, was quite nice for the underground hideout. Had all the essentials like a fridge, stove, microwave and sink. Even a small table much like the one back at the house. Catty started going through the cupboards, turning up her nose at all the non perishable things like oatmeal packets, granola bars, soup cups. She needed something different.

Knowing full well that the fridge should have been empty at that time because the underground hideout was only used for emergencies, Catty opened it anyways hoping maybe she was lucky and some fridge gremlin had left something inside. She blinked in confusion. “I don’t understand…there shouldn’t be anything fresh in here.”

Peering inside the girls saw things like apples, milk, some ground beef that looked like it was being saved for something, a few Chinese take out boxes and container of pasta. All things that really should not have been in a space that was supposedly seldom used. Was someone living there?

Slightly freaked out Catty went back to rifling in the cupboards, settling finally on some of that oatmeal she really wasn’t craving. As she waited for the water on the stove to boil Miu found a first aid kit in one of the drawers and helped patch up her bloody knuckles. By this point in their friendship Miu was unphased by Catty and her foolish injuries, to the point where she started carrying around alcohol swabs and bandages in her bag specifically to deal with Catty. This times though with all 4 knuckles skinned and bleeding she needed something a little more heavy duty.  

“So, what is this place?” Inquired Miu wrapping up the gauze tight.  

“Safe house. Apparently dad got a little paranoid after I was born and built it. Heard it was connected to an old missile silo but I’ve never found it.”

“Ever go looking?”

“Not for real, the only times I’ve been here was when dad was showing me the codes and the food stashes.” Catty inspected Miu’s handiwork, nodding in approval and turning back towards the boiling kettle before her cheeks glowed pink again.

There was more than enough water so after Catty got her bowl made up Miu searched through the cupboards hoping to find some kind of tea. Lucky for her Duo was a hardcore tea drinker so there was a pretty impressive stash of bagged herbal teas in a large clear jar. Miu fished out a fragrant smelling raspberry one, watching the red cloud out and take over the water as it brewed. Carefully holding the hot mug in both hands Miu went to join Catty at the table but her foot caught one of their carelessly dropped schoolbags and she tumbled to the floor, mug smashing and tea splattering everywhere.

“Be-ou!” Catty attempted to say her name with a full mouth and rushed over to help her up.

Getting back to her feet Miu sighed when she realized the tea has also splashed her nice blue and white outfit, probably permanently staining it. Grabbing a tea towel to soak up the mess she found Catty staring curiously at the floor when she turned back. There were still a few little red spots but no longer an entire cup worth. Catty got on her hands and knees to get a better look and ultimately saw nothing but she heard a dripping and swore she felt a draft.

“Miu? I think there’s another door here.” An excited grin slowly crept across Catty’s face.

“Another level? Aren’t we already down like…3 storeys or something?”

Popping back up Catty clasped her hands together and started looking around for something to try and open the mystery door with. “I dunno…I wanna see though. I could use a distraction since we’re going to be stuck here for a while.”

The girls tried prying it opened with a butter knife, tested out random nearby objects to see if anything disguised as something mundane was being used as a switch and even yelled “Open sesame!” at it but had no success. It wasn’t until Catty got annoyed and in frustration bounced on top of it that they heard a ‘click’ and froze.

Catty’s eyes sparkled with anticipation. “You hear that?”

Miu nodded slowly, Catty hopped off the tiles and they watched as a hatch in the kitchen floor slowly opened into darkness below. The draft felt before now felt more like a gentle, cool breeze.

“I’m going in!”

“Catty, no!” Miu grabbed her arm. “I’m too scared now! We don’t know where it goes!”

“Well, it can’t be that bad. My dad built this place! Besides, don’t you want to find out if someone has been living here?” Catty reminded her of their weird find in the fridge.

“But it could be dangerous!”

“We’ll be fine! Let’s go together.” Catty smiled and held her non injured hand out. Miu hesitated but ultimately allowed Catty to hold her.

Going down into the shadows Catty lit up the flashlight on her phone. There was nothing remarkable, just a plain hallway. Near the end of it there was a door to their left with the words ‘control room’ pasted on it. Jiggling the handle got them nowhere so gave up on it. The very end of the hall where the darkness was deepest and draft was coldest Catty and Miu could only see some metal flooring a few feet wide and a railing. Beyond that was pitch black and Catty’s phone die out before she could sweep it around for a better look.

“Shit. There’s gotta be a switch or something.” Catty’s voice echoed slightly in the darkness.

Miu felt along the wall inside the hall, then the outside. Her hand didn’t find a normal switch but something more like a lever. Grabbing it she held her breath and shut her eyes. With a loud click light flooded the space and she heard Catty scream…


	4. The Rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I am SO SORRY that this one is so long. I could not figure out where to split it up so it's fucking HUGE. But hopefully it's worth it?
> 
> ANYHOW. I should note this is the chapter where I really start to implement the use of ASL. Anything you see in ASL will be in uppercase and I'm attempting to make it as grammatically correct as I can. I think because ASL is visual I wanted to keep in intact as much as possible without a purely visual presentation, so it may look a tad awkward if you're not familiar with it but it's intentional.

For a day that had started out pretty normal (minus some vomit) it sure had taken quite the turn. 

After dropping Catty and Miu off at school and taking Mrs. Li home, Duo returned to the farmhouse hoping to sneak in a nap before attending to the chores but after an hour of lying there he couldn’t calm down enough to sleep. He assumed he was still anxious from the confrontation with those idiots in town and hated that it was bothering him so much. Deciding that it was worthless to even try and doze off when his body wouldn’t let him he crawled back out of bed and got to work.

The arrangement with Hilde he had made long ago was simple. Essentially they switched up the typical parental roles with Hilde going to work everyday and Duo staying at home to attend to the house and the kids. A big part of this was due to the fact that Duo didn’t quite feel it would be right for him to take the reigns of a business her uncle had started and he didn’t want to step on her toes when it came to the day to day operations. There were some occasions when he would show up and help with the books or tasks that required some extra hands but for the most part he stayed out of it. 

So while Hilde was off getting her hands dirty with lithium grease Duo had spent the last 17 years taking the rugrats to their extracurriculars, kissing boo-boos better and running the errands. When Catty was small and Duo had first adopted this role a lot of the locals had viewed it as unusual, but they got over it pretty quickly and a group of local moms sort of took him under their wing teaching him things like the sacred art of couponing and how to sneak in a power nap during an early morning ballet class. He was certainly grateful for that because piloting a hunk of metal hurling through space was NOTHING like dealing with monsters under the bed. 

At this point Duo was basically a pro. On a typical day mornings meant tackling dishes and starting laundry, afternoons were for trips to the supermarket or picking up whatever Hilde had requested and dropping it off to her at the shop. The rest of the afternoon would be squeezing in whatever other household chores still remained that he couldn’t pass off on Catty or Miu for help, trying to figure out dinner and making sure the bills were getting paid on time. 

Had you asked him 20 years ago if this is what he saw himself doing in his mid 30’s Duo would have just laughed it off, because even up until Styx was born he was still assisting an old friend on occasional Preventers missions. Once he had 2 little girls under his care though he permanently dropped the whole action hero thing and cozied down into the role of the stay at home parent a lot easier than he expected. Did he miss the old way of life? There were times when he would look back on those memories and wonder what trouble Heero would be able to get him into now but he also would never change it for all the adventure in the world. His girls were more than enough. 

With Styx being ill the routine was a little off. The morning was still dishes and laundry as usual, but instead of going out and running errands Duo decided to just stick around on the couch watching cartoons with her while she leaned on him half asleep. Hilde would pop in every half hour in various stages of greasiness to check on them or make a call to the employees at the scrap yard. She took care of the puke bucket a few times and brought Duo an offering of tea since he was kind of stuck where he was. When it got to the point where his legs were growing stiff from not moving Hilde scrubbed up her arms and shed her coveralls so they could swap out as the human pillow. 

As Duo was taking his empty mug over to the sink he thought he heard a vehicle pull into the driveway. They weren’t expecting anyone that day so he immediately went into panic mode and dashed through the porch, snapping and clicking all the locks shut. They typically only left their side door opened during the day so all the other entrances were secured.

Watching through the small window in the door Duo saw it was some kind of old van emblazoned with a sloppily painted version of a logo he noticed on the coats of the men from earlier. 4 of them poured out of the van, each of them holding hand guns. 3 of the men were the ones from town earlier and the one leading them was the current chief of police for the town but he wasn’t in his officers uniform, instead he wore a version of the camo jacket with gold stitching for his name (Jones) instead of the white like the other men.  
Against his better judgement Duo stared the group down as they approached, Chief Jones flashing him a toothy grin that made him uneasy. With the other men standing back the Chief rapped at the door with the barrel of his gun, his cold grey eyes not breaking contact with Duo’s.

“Anyone home?”

Duo only tapped his ear and shrugged in response. 

“Bullshit. I know you can hear me through the door, Maxwell.”

Just behind him Duo heard some bare feet on the kitchen floor, he didn’t turn his head but he knew it was Hilde. Using his left hand dropped to his side Duo very slowly fingerspelled the letters H-I-D-E. This time the feet trampled through the kitchen and down the hall, disappearing somewhere beyond the living room. 

Focusing back on Chief Jones, Duo realized he was pointing the gun directly at him through the glass. A massive oversight on Duo’s part was not having bulletproof windows in the porch, but then again he’d never really had a need for it. Even the locks on the doors and windows were to just keep general thieves and troublemakers out. Most of Duo’s troubles were back in space so he’d never really thought about turning the house into a fortress.

Duo made the decision to give himself up, hoping the men assumed he was home alone. Unlocking the door the Chief rushed him poking the gun to his chest and forcing him backwards into the kitchen. Duo put his hands up but kept their eyes locked the entire time. 

The Chief shoved him into one of the chairs and whistled prompting one of the other men to start binding him with rope, he watch with a lump in his throat as another one of them went down the hall and started searching rooms. 

Heavy footsteps, doors banging. A few moments later he heard Hilde’s muffled, angry voice. The man reappeared dragging Hilde by her arm as she squeezed Styx in the other, the child’s eyes zoomed around the room in fear and confusion. Duo’s arms were struck so he couldn’t even talk to her and give her some reassurance that they were going to be okay.

While one of the men ripped Styx away it took the other two to pin Hilde to the chair and tie her down as she kicked and swore at them, spitting and hitting one in the eye in the process. Normally not one to use her voice, Stxy SCREAMED and squirmed wildly in the arms of the hulking man who pulled her away from her mom. Stopping for a moment her face scrunched, then her cheeks puffed out and she spewed at the feet of Chief. Startled the man let her go and Styx ran back to Hilde, wrapping her arms around her legs and squeezing her eyes tight. 

“Haha, nice!” Duo laughed, but that only prompted Chief Jones to backhand him across the face. “Hey! Watch the nose ring, buddy! Seriously, what the fuck do you want?”

The Chief tucked his gun away and kneeled down so he was about eye level with Duo, the grin on his face growing even wider and more sinister. “You’re all going to come peacefully and do some work for us.”

Duo snorted. “What could we possibly do for you?” 

“A lot of things, actually. I’m specifically interested in your skills, Maxwell. However, don’t think I haven’t seen the creative talents of your woman here. She’ll be valuable to us too.” The Chief gestured towards Hilde, she had a fire in her eyes and was leaned over as far as she could to try and comfort Styx who was starting to sob. 

Duo started to assess the situation. 

No hands meant no communication with Hilde or Styx. All the escape routes were blocked by the men and they were all armed while all he had was a head full of bobby pins he couldn't even reach. Even if one of them could get out calling for help was out of the question since the damn chief of police was right there holding their lives in his hands. There was really no way out. They would have to comply. 

“...what do you want exactly?” 

The Chief popped back up to a standing position, making sure that Duo could still see the gun sitting in his waist holster. “Mobile suits. Ideally we’d like you do design something new but we know that takes time and we’re sort of pressed for it at the moment so for now we have an older model we’d like fixed up and ready for the front lines.” He sounded overly chipper talking about the construction of a war machine. 

“What the fuck are you talking about? There’s no war.”

“Maybe not in your eyes, but there’s been conflict bubbling just under the surface for years.” The chief sauntered around the kitchen inspecting how they lived, taking in the dust on the windowsill and the over flowing pile of junk mail on the counter. He didn’t seem horribly impressed. “The refuse has been slowly infiltrating our humble nation and we’re dead set on taking it back and making it something to be proud of again.” 

With a smirk Duo leaned back in the chair. “Refuse? Well, you don’t want me then.”

“Refuse you may be, but you’re useful. Just a little too self righteous for our cause but your experience as a gundam pilot is something we can use.”

“Uh huh…I had a suspicion about you. Heard rumours for years. Now I know why those acts of vandalism in town keep getting ignored, it’s probably you doing them.”

The Chief whipped his gun out again and before Duo could even move it went off, sending a searing pain into his arm. Hilde yelled as Styx continued to squeeze her legs but she was relieved when she realized it was just a warning shot. He was bleeding but still alive.

Shaking his head the Chief tapped the barrel of the gun on the shoulder of Duo’s bleeding arm. “Maxwell, I don’t like false accusations and I can’t help it if my men are taking action.”

“Oh, go to hell!” Duo snapped trying to not wince at the burning sensation in his arm. 

Frowning the Chief turned to the tall, bald man in the room. “Warner, get him patched up. I’m done talking with this…empathizer.” With that Chief Jones left the house, letting his men deal with the family as he casually had a smoke on the porch as if this was an everyday thing. 

Knowing now that they were indeed willing to shoot for whatever their cause was Duo decided it was best for the time being if they just went along with it, an escape attempt could always be made later. He allowed himself to be treated (which was just gauze from a first aid kit), blindfolded, cuffed and led into the van along with Hilde and Styx. All he could think about the entire bumpy ride to where ever they were going was how terrified Styx must have been because she too had been blindfolded, so now her primary source to the world was cut off. Even between the rumbling of the engine and the potholes being hit he could feel her shuddering against his side. 

After about 15 minutes of being on the road the vehicle came to a stop and the men led them out, guns pointed to their backs and commanded them to walk. Duo became overwhelmed by the smell of hay and dust. When the blindfolds were removed he realized he knew exactly where they were. 

They were being held hostage in the same barn he and Catty had once visited to see some ponies her friend at the time had. Back when Catty was about 6 she went through a horse and pony phase and hung out a lot with the Chief’s daughter, which ultimately led to play dates and eventually a short visit to come see the horses one day. However, there no longer appeared to be any horses in the barn. Beyond the stall they were locked in Duo spotted some diagrams and hand written notes stapled to the wall, a flag version of that damn logo, an ample amount of guns and extra camo jackets. Apparently the chief was slowly converting the barn into his base of operations and Duo wondered if they were the first to be brought there as prisoners. 

Since they were secured behind a gate the chief only left Warner (the one who had sloppily wrapped his wound up) who was now armed with a rifle to keep an eye on them. Hilde and Duo were still in cuffs though, possibly to continue to make them uncomfortable. Duo really needed his hands though, first and foremost to talk to Styx but he also wanted to give her the flannel shirt he’d been wearing since she was just in her pjs. He didn’t think she’d mind that there was some blood on it as long as she was warm. 

With a grunt Duo stood up and walked over to the bars, stray pieces of hay getting stuck to the bottoms of his bare feet. He flashed his best trustworthy grin as Warner readied 2 hands on the rifle. “Hey, pal. Listen, you have to let me out of these handcuffs.”

“Why the hell should I do that?” Warner side eyed him. 

Knocking the cuffs off the bars Duo got Warner’s full attention and tried to do some two-handed signs like ‘BACON’, ‘LEARN’ and ‘BULLSHIT’, nothing of any relevancy to the conversation but they showed the limited range he had with his hands bound. “Look, my dude. Dad to dad. I know you got a young kid too, imagine if you couldn’t speak to her one day. No more asking how school was, no more bed time stories…What would you do? I’m just saying, all my kid knows right now is that mommy and daddy have been capture by big scary men with guns.”

Warner glanced over Duo’s shoulder to see Hilde and Styx huddled together, the little girl spotted him looking at her and hid her face in Hilde’s oil spotted shirt. “Can’t deaf people just read lips or something?”

“Can YOU read lips?”

“You implying something?” Warner narrowed his eyes at Duo who took a step back and put his cuffed hands up in a defensive gesture. 

“No way! I’m garbage at lip reading too, man!”

Warner thought on it for a moment, trying to decide if this shaggy looking gremlin was worth trusting. Putting his rifle on his back he grabbed the keys for the cuffs and unlocked Duo. “You pull any funny shit and you get a bullet between the eyes.”

Duo rubbed the red marks on his wrists. “You got it!” He forced a chipper response before turning back towards Styx and Hilde with an eye roll. He could have easily gotten himself out of there by now with all the bobby pins he used to keep his hair up. Not exactly like the lock picks he used to hide in his hair as a kid but he’d tested the pins out as an adult and they worked well enough in a pinch. 

When Styx saw his hands were finally free her tear streaked face perked up a bit and she started in on the questions. 

CATTY WHERE? Her brow furrowed in confusion and her eyes darted around.

SHE SAFE. Duo told her trying to look confident in his answer. 

WE LEAVE WHEN?

UNCLE HEERO HELP SOON.

ME SCARED. Styx shook like she was freezing and a few more tears tumbled down her cheeks. 

ME SAME. In truth Duo was probably almost as terrified as she was. Had he been on his own that would have been one thing, but throwing a small kid into the situation? No way he was going to pull any of his usual tricks. 

STRANGE MEN, WHO THEY? Styx asked with her eyes drifting over to the man with the gun. 

THEY DANGEROUS, STAY CLOSE. Taking off his shirt and draping it over her shoulders Duo drew her to his side leaving just enough space for him to tell her: HE STUPID. HEAD LOOK LIKE BUTT. He said referencing Warner’s very bald, shiny head. 

Styx covered her mouth and suppressed a giggle but it still caught the attention of their guard. Duo just smiled and waved with Styx following his lead which was apparently enough for Warner to go back to mostly ignoring them. The three of them kept the verbal chatter to a minimum, with Hilde keeping the bulk of her conversation to one handed signs and facial expressions. Duo was right in the middle of telling her about the bobby pins and the locks when something dinged off the bars and grabbed their attention. 

Another one of the men stood there, this one a lot smaller and skinnier than Warner with a much fuller head of hair. He was holding a cardboard shipping tube, waved it and tossed it at their feet. “Give these a look over. Figure out what you can do with her.” Saying something to Warner about getting a drink the two men left them in the barn stall prison to their own devices. 

Hilde snapped up the tube, popped the plastic lid off with her teeth and peered inside. Holding the closed end of the tube in her hands she sort of shook it hard a few times, sending the papers inside flying out. Duo gathered them up and arranged them neatly in front of the 3 of them, they were old plans for a Leo along with what looked like some fairly recent photos of an actual Leo that likely didn’t see combat. There had been a news report a few weeks prior of one going missing from a museum, maybe the Chief was behind it?

“A damn Leo? We’d be better off building something from scratch.” Admittedly when it came to mobile suits Duo had been a bit spoiled with his one of a kind set ups, so the idea of modifying a Leo sort of seemed beneath him. 

“Don’t tell them that…” Hilde picked up an interior photo of the stolen suit, realizing the ground model wasn’t too different from the ones she’d handled in space. “What the heck do they think they’re gonna do with a mobile suit? They’re a bunch of back roads militia bullies in love with their guns. I doubt half of them have never even seen war like we did.”

“Probably not.” Duo nodded in agreement.

“What’s the Chief doing blabbering on about some war anyways? Has Heero told you anything?”

Duo scratched his head and shrugged. “Well…I’m not sure to be honest.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know if it’s just Heero being paranoid over Miu or if it’s real.”

Hilde tilted her head curiously. “You gonna tell me?”

Duo double checked to make sure their guards were still occupied before leaning closer to Hilde and whispering. “…he thinks there could be something larger and more organized going on. The Prevetners seem to think it’s isolated cases of local idiots though.”

“God, I hope so…You hear of any other suits being stolen?” 

Shaking his head Duo started braiding some of the messy hair on his daughters head. “No…I think we might be unique situation. There’s not a lot of gundam pilots on earth after all.” 

“...yeah, this is all YOUR fault.” Hilde joked with a smirk prompting Duo to stick his tongue out at her. 

“I guess they want to see if I’m really as good as they think I am. I don’t know what they want us to do though, add a fucking confetti cannon?”

They continued to try and keep the mood as light as possible in spite of their situation, suggesting ridiculous modifications for the stolen Leo like a rubber duck launcher and foam sword attachments. Eventually Styx got sleepy, so wrapped up in her dad’s shirt she huddled up against his chest and drifted off while her parents continued their chatter and kept looking over the photos and old blue prints. They toyed with the idea of downplaying their skills if it ever got to the point of them actually working on the practically ancient contraption, but seeing as Hilde had a reputation for turning long forgotten pieces of trash into competent fighting machines that might be a hard one to pull off. 

While their guards were still occupied outside they started to quietly discuss escape plans. Safest thing to do would be to wait and see of Heero would show up and save the day, but Duo currently had no clue where he was and if that rascal was halfway across the planet it might be too late by the time he found out. In the scenario that maybe someone else noticed they were gone calling the cops was a bust since…well, they were literally being held prisoner by the local chief of police. 

Getting themselves out was still a possible option but Duo insisted he would only do it on the grounds that Hilde and Styx left him behind, an idea which Hilde did not like one bit but would give in to for Styx. Even in the event that Hilde and Styx escaped there was still the problem with making it to the safe house without being tracked. Their guards were still checking on them every half hour, the entire grounds of the property were likely being monitored and knowing the Chief cameras were probably crammed in every corner. So even getting off the property posed some risks without knowing of any potential blind spots, especially with a tired 8 year old who still had a bit of an upset tummy and the fact that none of them were wearing shoes or socks. 

Really, all they could do was sit there and wait. Either for someone to barge in and rescue them or for the perfect opportunity to attempt escape. So that’s exactly what they did as the hours ticked by, at least they assumed hours were passing since there was no clock to be seen. The only indication of time passing was the sunlight through the one window they could see being replaced by the dark of night and a weak exterior bulb.

Despite exhaustion starting to set in Duo still wanted to stay awake and keep alert, so he managed to keep rambling on about nonsense with Hilde even though his eyes were burning. As he was joking about what kinds of elaborate distractions he could stage (such as the worlds LEAST sexy striptease for their friends in the army jackets) Hilde suddenly stopped mid-laugh and glanced around like she’d heard something.

“You feel that?” She asked tossing the photos she was still holding and placing her cuffed hands on the dirt floor. 

“Feel what?” Duo pat Styx on the back to wake her up in case something was about to go down. 

Hilde leaned down like she was listening and a moment later there was the smallest of vibrations. “Is someone starting up a truck or something?”

“I don’t hear an engine.”

The shaking in the ground grew a little stronger but whatever it was it wasn’t going very fast. Outside they could hear their captors starting to talk a little more frantically but couldn’t make out the words, however they could hear the confusion on their voices and a moment later that turned into fear and screaming. A few gunshots crackled through the night air and bullets clinked loudly off of something hard and metallic. 

Gently removing Styx from his lap, Duo ripped out one of his bobby pins and started to work at Hilde’s handcuffs. Once he managed to get one cuff off he immediately signed EVERYTHING FINE to the puzzled Styx and scooped her up in both arms, taking her to the outermost corner of their barn stall away from the doors.

“Duo, what do you think it is?” Hilde followed him while going at the other cuff with the hair pin. 

“Heero with a robot.”

Hilde stopped. “...what?”

“Just hang away from the door! Go with Styx!” Duo shoved them together and ran for the barred doors keeping them trapped. 

Ripping out another pin part of his hair fell out but he didn’t care. Like mad Duo rushed to try and open the lock, glancing up at the main doors to the barn every few seconds as the shaking in the ground became more wild. He nearly fell over a few times but still managed to get the lock to pop open, and almost as if on cue the barn doors splintered opened with what looked like a giant mechanical hand coming to rest just outside the entrance. 

“...holy shit.” Hilde’s jaw nearly fell off. 

Duo jumped and let out a victorious yell. “Yes! My boy came through! I knew he’d come to the rescue!” 

Before their captors could regroup the three of them dashed for the hand, hopped on and held on for dear life as they were lifted up towards the torso where the cockpit sat. Hilde didn’t get a very good look at the mobile suit that had come to their rescue but got enough of a glance to realize that this wasn’t any model she’d ever seen before because never in combat had she ever seen a suit painted bright yellow. The hand came to a sudden stop almost tossing Duo and Styx off but Hilde caught them and then the door to the cockpit slammed opened. 

A very familiar, sunny voice greeted them.

“Hi mom! Hi dad!” Instead of Heero it was Catty, she beamed at them looking pretty darn pleased with herself. Wearing Duo’s old clothes with her hair braided up seeing her sitting in the cockpit was like seeing some weird, alternate reality version of her dad as a kid. 

“Cat…ty?” Hilde was at a loss for words, all she could do was let Duo drag her inside. 

The second they were all in Catty got the door shut and the screens slid back down around them, nearly clipping the shoulders of the two adults. Duo popped the straps off of Catty attempted to shove her out of the seat.

“YOU are done in this thing!” Duo snarled and flicked the tip of her nose.

“Aww, but I was just getting used to it!” Protested Catty still holding onto the straps and giving him the puppy dog eyes. 

“Yeah, well-” Duo stopped realizing something wasn’t right. “Catriona…what did you do to the pedals?”

Catty looked down at her short legs and then the pedals she’d welded extensions onto. “I fixed them. You made them WAY to far away for me and I couldn’t adjust the seat.”

“I-I didn’t-! Oh, forget it!” Frustrated Duo gave up on trying to remove his stubborn kid from the controls. He could feel Hilde’s eyes burning into his skull. 

There was barely enough space in the cockpit for 1 person, never mind 2 full grown adults, one short teen and a child. After a bit of human Tetris they got Styx situated on Catty’s lap sideways and trying to block as little of the screens as possible Duo and Hilde held on to whatever they could on the ceiling and hoped to hell that Catty’s experience in the battle arena was enough to get them back to the safe house in 1 piece. As they started to leave the property their captors tried shooting at them some more, Catty didn’t seem at all bothered as she maneuvered the massive contraption past them and back into the woods. A brief check on the back camera showed the small group of men just standing there starring at the mobile suit in disbelief as it left them all behind. 

After a few minutes of tension and silence Duo tapped Catty on the shoulder and sternly commanded her. “We can’t leave a trail of broken trees, get this thing airborne.”

Catty just blinked in surprise. “This thing FLIES?”

“...Yes? How the HELL did you get it out of the silo if you didn’t fly it!?” 

“Climbing. Duh?” Catty stated matter-of-factly crossing her arms. Duo wanted to rip his hair out. 

To avoid any opportunity for Hilde to tear into him before they made it home Duo immediately hit a button that started off a ringing sound, the middle of the screen went red with the words Calling Home Base slowly scrolling across the bottom. Duo had no idea if anyone was going to even answer.

A moment later a familiar, grizzled face appeared in a box on the screen. The years had not exactly been kind to him but then again Heero subjected most of this abuse on himself. Wrinkles that made him look nearly a decade older marked his face, his hair was as wild as ever with sprigs of grey poking out everywhere and he still wore a beat up jean jacket. 

Heero’s eyes skipped over them, a smirk slowly crawling on this face. “Zero Two, are you having trouble figuring out how to get back in?”

“Oh, SICK. I get a codename!” Catty laughed. “Uh, yeah? I can’t fucking fly this thing.”

On screen Heero sort of leaned sideways like he was looking at something ahead of him. “I can see that. It’s alright, give me some clearance and I’ll get you back home.”

“Clearance..?” Catty bit her lip and looked around, she had no idea what he was talking about. 

That’s when to her right an icon appeared on the screen and she assumed she was supposed to hit it but before she could Duo’s hand popped up and clicked it. When their eyes met he looked FURIOUS. Catty shrunk back with a nervous grin, putting her arms around Styx she gulped and tried to avoid anymore eye contact the rest of the way home. 

With Heero taking control of the mobile suit remotely he expertly got it into the air, sailing over the tree tops without so much as a bump. Anyone looking out over the forest that night was probably getting a bit of a fright thinking they were seeing a UFO. Within minutes they were at their destination, slowly being lowered into the gaping mouth of the old underground silo. As they descended Duo groaned, seeing that there were huge gouge marks all along the one side of the silo from where Catty had made his mobile suit scale the wall to get out. The feet of the robot settled amongst the chunks of concrete. 

Popping the screen up and opening the door Catty handed Styx off to her mom and followed quickly after her, fearing that he dad might try grabbing her by the ear. Out of the cockpit and on the platform Duo looked ready to rip a strip off of Catty for her stunt but before he could even get a word out Hilde wound up and punched him square in the jaw, he lost his footing and caught himself on the railing which was the only thing preventing him from falling to the pavement below. Sure, they jokingly both bopped each other in the arm from time to time but Hilde had NEVER full on hit him before so Duo was definitely stunned when she sunk that sucker punch into his face. 

Glancing over her shoulder at her daughters Hilde nodded at them. “Catty, take Styx and try to make her eat something. I need to have a conversation with your father. We will talk later.” Her calmness in that moment was TERRIFYING. 

Catty grabbed her sister and rushed off the platform, past Heero who’d just come out of the control room and into the hallway that led to the safe house. Heero kinda wanted to follow her since he’d never seen Hilde this mad before (hell, he was sure he’d never even seen her frown) but he also wanted to see where this was going so he hung back to watch it unfold. 

“You IDIOT! How you could DO THIS?!” Hilde screamed at the top of her lungs, her anger echoed off the walls of the silo. “YOU were the one who said you never wanted our girls anywhere near this bullshit! And you’re the one who berated ME and walked out on us for 3 fucking days when I started letting Catty fight in Mini Mech battles! You FUCKING hypocrite!” Hilde rushed Duo and shoved him so him so hard he fell backwards onto the platform, he wasn’t resisting her. 

“Hilde, please. Just lis-”

“No! NO!” She clenched her fists and really wanted to break his teeth but she let out a scream instead and kicked the railing. “FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU, DUO MAXWELL!”

“Hilde! Can I just explain?”

Hilde snapped her head towards him breathing hard through her nose, he had NEVER seen her this enraged ever. “Explain what? What is there to explain?”

“I didn’t…I hope you don’t think I built this for her.”

Hilde looked up at the mobile suit, noting the cat ears on the head and just pointed. “Why that then, Duo? Huh?”

Duo pulled himself up with the railing, he couldn’t make eye contact with her. “I built it for me but named it after her…that’s why it looks a little like a cat…”

“Why the hell would you build this? Why? You put our daughter in danger!”

“Because I got paranoid! Okay? When you got pregnant I wanted to make sure none of you were ever in danger again but I felt powerless without my gundam so I started building another one. I NEVER once told Catty about it, I have NO idea how she found it!”

Heero cleared his throat and stepped forward. “Uh…Miu told me they both found it by accident.”

“Shut it, Yuy!” Hilde snarled at him and pointed with her thumb over her shoulder. “Don’t think I don’t see yours behind me to! You idiots both know that these are dangerous! How could you build them so close to the house? What the FUCK! UGH!” Hilde kicked at the railing again until she broke one of the posts, screamed and started crying. Duo attempted to comfort her but she slapped him away. “No, NO! Don’t you TOUCH me right now! I-I don’t even want to look at you right now!” With that Hilde stormed out of the silo and towards the safe house.

When she came up through the hatch in the kitchen her face was a mess and all 3 girls were there raiding the cupboard for granola bars, Styx ran over and hugged her. Hilde slumped into a chair and took Styx into her lap, crying into her hair. 

Gulping back a mouthful of chocolate chip granola, Catty cautiously approached. “Mom? I’m sorry…”

“No…Catty, it’s not your fault.” Hilde sniffled and wiped away some tears. “Your dipshit of a father and I are to blame here. He built that war machine and I taught you how to use one! It’s our fault!”

“...I’m sorry, I just wanted you back home.”

“...I know. I know you only did what you thought was right.” If it wasn’t for the fact that the entire situation scared the hell out of her Hilde would have been telling Catty how PROUD she actually was.

Pulling off what she did had meant applying what she’d learned from building the mini mechs with her mom, fixing the problem with the pedals when her legs were too short for them and finding an alternative way to get out of the silo to go and find them. On top of all of that Catty had gotten herself and Miu to the safe house in the first place and somehow figured out where they were being held. How could Hilde be mad at her? She’d been doing MUCH more dangerous things at a much younger age for a far worse cause. 

“I shouldn’t have punched your father, I’m terrible.”

Bringing her mom a tissue Catty just shrugged. “...he’s just going to tell you he deserved it.”

“I know…”

Once Hilde had put Styx to bed and made sure Catty and Miu were going to stay put in the living room she went back to the kitchen where she splashed her face with water, grabbed an ice pack from the freezer and venture back to the silo where Duo and Heero were still avoiding her wrath. They stopped talking immediately when they noticed she was there and Duo kinda froze like a deer in headlights. Heero took this as his signal to leave and rushed back towards the safe house, making brief eye contact that Hilde couldn’t quite read as they passed each other. 

Hilde didn’t know if she should pass the ice pack, throw it at his head or press it into his face as hard as she could. She did feel bad but she was also still really mad at him and wanted him to know it, however her merciful side showed up at the last possible moment and instead she gently placed it on the spot where there was now a large red welt on his face. He winced a little.

“...I’m still really pissed off at you but I’m sorry I made your face hurt. I won’t do that again.”

Duo went to hold the ice pack himself but ended up touching her hand instead. “Nope, it’s fine. I totally deserved it.”

“Catty said you’d say that.”

“Well, as much as her grades don’t reflect it she IS a really smart kid. Did you see what she did to the pedals in there so she could reach them?”

Letting go of the pack Hilde sighed and started anxiously picking at her cuticles. “Look, you can keep your weird robot but you need to figure out a way to keep her from taking it again. She is far too much like us.”

“Agreed. As soon as I get some sleep I’ll start brain storming.”

“Well, you’d better get to the safe house and crash. We’ve had a HELL of a day and I’m pretty sure we’re all too tired to be arguing.”

“Do I get a goodnight kiss?” Duo started to lean.

Hilde glared at him and covered his mouth with her hand. “Don’t push it, I’m still mad at you.” 

Removing her hand he wiggled his eyebrows at her. “But getting punched in the face was KINDA hot.”

“DUO!” Hilde exclaimed pulling her hand out of his. 

“Okay, okay! I get it! No punchy-punchy and no kissy-kissy! Only sleepy-sleep.”

“You’re totally banished to the couch tonight.”

Duo shrugged . “I’ll just cuddle up with Heero, he knows how to treat a boy right. I think in another reality we’re definitely lovers!”

Rolling her eyes Hilde let out a heavy sigh, turned on her heels and once again headed back to the sanctuary of the safe house leaving Duo standing there alone. Still nursing the sore spot on his face with the ice pack he glanced up at the monster he’d built, fear briefly washing over him.

It really did suit her better.

He really hoped history wasn’t about to repeat itself.


End file.
